"There is a trend that this is going to be the wave of the future. We happen to be on the leading edge of it, which is so great for Dallas County Schools. It will be great for the taxpayers of Dallas," Sorrells said back in 2014.

But, in January, DCS announced it would shut down the entire camera program outside of Dallas County, and the agency began laying off staff. Over the last several years, DCS only signed deals with only about 10 communities outside Dallas County.

Records show over the next four years, DCS owes $29 million in payments on debt the agency took on to fund the camera programs it ran outside Dallas County.

On Friday, NBC 5 Investigates went to Houston to capture video of school buses that carry DCS cameras. Just one day after NBC 5 shot video, crews began removing the Houston stop-arm cameras to take them back to Dallas County.

In a statement Tuesday, DCS told NBC 5 Investigates, "We offered a conservative and low risk plan to Houston as a trial. DCS invested in equipment for this. When the program appeared to be at a dead-end, DCS went to Houston to collect its equipment."

DCS now plans to sell those cameras back to the camera vendor with which the agency partnered on the deal.

In addition to that $1 million of equipment sent to Houston, Dallas County taxpayers paid to install and uninstall those cameras. They also paid more than $57,000 to live-stream video from the cameras for 18 months so Houston could test the system.

On Wednesday, the DCS board will meet to consider replacing Sorrells as DCS superintendent. Sorrells has said he doesn't want to comment on the situation in advance of that meeting.